Alexander Polussa is the new San Jose District 10 member of the Youth Commission

By Carol Rosen, Correspondent

Posted:
11/08/2012 08:01:55 PM PST

Updated:
11/08/2012 08:01:55 PM PST

Alexander Polussa is a 17-year old senior at Leland High School and the new member of the youth commission for San Jose City Council District 10.

Council member Nancy Pyle selected Alex because of his experience with the commission and his membership on the District 10 Youth Advisory Council.

"It was a difficult decision because there were many great candidates," she said. "Since I'm termed out of office this year, I really wanted a commissioner who was familiar with the youth commission and the District 10 YAC. Alex has been an active member of the D10 YAC for a number of years, and he was the candidate with the best chance to get a running start this year. Alex also works extremely well with others and is quite motivational," she said.

Alex joined YAC because his brother Nick was a member and also a youth commissioner for the district. That membership gave him a step up because of the things he learned, including volunteerism and community building.

"When I was in seventh grade, my brother and his friends were involved in YAC, and I've been an active member for four years," he said in an interview.

Alex is a busy guy. The president of his senior class, he's been involved in student leadership and a member of the track and field team; he was a member of the speech and debate class for two years and used to play soccer--at school, on a club team and pick-up games with friends. He's also a member of Leland's EPACT, a club that helps with recycling and uses the money earned from that for the school garden.

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"I like to have fun, but I also like to get work done," he said. "I'm good at reaching out to people, and I'm down to earth. People ask me what they can do for community service because of my experience with the youth commission."

Each youth commissioner has his own YAC, and Alex says the kids in his area feel privileged because they don't have the gang problems that plague some of the other districts. The YAC represents the district's diversity, Alex said.

It meets twice a month and offers special programs and services. For example, his YAC is planning to show a free movie for elementary and middle school students at the Almaden Community Center, likely this month, but they haven't chosen a date. The group also volunteers for various community programs; members worked for the community center's harvest festival, setting up and taking down and doing whatever was needed in between.

In addition, they do some fundraising. At the movie night they plan to sell snacks. The money they make will be used for different free programs the YAC will put on.

The city's youth commissioners also meet once a month at city hall. These sessions might feature a guest speaker or a roundtable discussion, or provide information to council members. In September they met with city officials to discuss what qualities they think are necessary in choosing a new parks, recreation and neighborhood services director.

They may discuss issues with council members, primarily those that affect young people, such as drinking and driving, library hours and student truancy. The youth commission is trying to work in the truancy abatement program even though the budget constraints eliminated the city's formal program.

"We need to understand what's going on in our city and pass that along to our classmates and friends," he said.

Alex moved to San Jose from Susanville when he was 7 years old. He attended Williams Elementary and Bret Harte and will graduate from Leland this spring. He's taking three Advanced Placement classes this year--calculus, physics and economics--and took four last year--French, U.S. history, environmental science and English. He has a 3.8 grade point average.

He plans to apply to a number of colleges, including several on the East Coast as well as San Jose State. He says he'd love to take a year off and travel. While France would be at the top of the list because he speaks the language, he said, "I would really like going to different places, traveling and learning different languages."